1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and a system for identifying content, preferably media content for publishing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Although applicable to all sorts of content the invention will be described with regard to media content. Although applicable to all types of stimuli of the content the invention will be described with regard to audio and/or video content.
Conventional methods and systems today provide services so that a user can use these services to automatically identify media content he is been presented. To identify the media content it is already known to use a watermark in the media content and further to detect the watermark or an automated creation of fingerprint based on a unique characteristic of the media content, for example the popular Shazam application for mobile devices is used. After detecting the watermark in the media content the watermark has to be identified. Because identification is typically performed online, the user respectively the corresponding device sends the detected watermark or fingerprint to a server. In addition to the identification of the watermark, the watermark or mark may be used for providing advertisement related to the media content, for example purchasing an album in an online shop or a statistical collection of data on the popularity of the media content.
Another usage of marks rely on location information provided by a mobile user terminal as a tool to target the media content being offered.
However location information tend to be inaccurate, when for example provided by GPS, WiFi and/or 3G triangulation and the fact that to a great extend media content is being presented indoors. In particular location information based on GPS is then not available. Even if the determination of the location is possible a corresponding location error is big enough to prevent identifying for example a distinctive terminal located in a shop where the media content is presented.
A further disadvantage is, that location information of a user is a very private sensitive information which deserves high protection although it conveys a lot of information needed for a media content customization.
In FIG. 1 a typical conventional system for identifying content is described. A content element 100 is determined to be displayed on a local display 550, 551. Before displaying the content element 100 is watermarked by a watermark generator 210 and distributed with the watermark via a network 400, for example the internet and a local area network of a shop to the two displays 550, 551 for presenting the content element 100. These displays 550, 551 may for example be public displays. A mobile device 600 of a user captures the presented content element 100, for example if the content element 100 is presented via audio, via a microphone in the mobile device 600. An application running on the mobile device 600 extracts the watermark of the captured audio of the content element 100 and sends it back to a watermark resolution server 220. The watermark resolution server 220 matches the watermark against a watermark database 230 and triggers the delivery of additional content 300, for example stored in a database to the mobile device 600 of the user.
Another conventional method for identifying content is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,881,657 B2: A device sends a content identification query, which includes a sample of the content being broadcast to a server to request an identity of the content. The server will perform a computational identification of the content, return the result to the device and store the result. Also a geographic location information may be send to the request server. A location information may also be sent to further enhance the identification of the content, for example to disambiguate the broadcast station.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,970,167 B2 shows a further identification method for content. A processor provides identifying data, wherein the identifying data is derived from sample value representing audible portions of audio or from sample values representing picture portions of a video. The identifying data is provided to a database and advertising information is received from the data base, wherein the advertising information is associated with the audio or video and wherein the advertising information has been identified in the database utilizing the identifying data. The advertising information is then provided via device output. The processor is configured to derive identifying data from the sample values, to provide the identifying data to the database via a network and to receive from the database at least some information from a profile associated with the proprietor of the audio or imagery.
However the conventional methods described have certain drawbacks: As already mentioned location information tends to be rather inaccurate and/or may not be used indoors. Further location information is very privacy sensitive data which a user would not provide without being very essential for himself.